Company foresees ability to boost scrap tires-to-raw materials output.

Boulder, Colorado-based Bolder Industries Inc. has announced the purchase of the former Pyrolyx facility in Terre Haute, Indiana. The 66,000 square foot location, which ceased operations in March 2020, will be retrofitted with Bolder’s chemical process to handle scrap tires, using what Bolder calls “a currently permitted facility” to increase its manufacturing capacity within the first year of operations.

The initial renovation phase is expected to be completed in early 2023 and is being planned to convert approximately 3 million tires per year into Bolder’s products: BolderBlack carbon black and BolderOil fuel. The company says its process also generates steel scrap.

Bolder says the move will create an overall increase of nearly three times its prior capacity. The company says it has a successful track record of retrofitting existing manufacturing operations, including its purchase of a facility in Maryville, Missouri in 2014.

That location “has continued production 24 hours a day since it began full commercial operations in February of 2019,” states the firm. Bolder says it currently supplies some of the largest brands in the world “with sustainable raw materials in the petrochemical, tire manufactured rubber goods, plastics and auto” sectors.

“As a native Hoosier, it's incredibly rewarding to come back to my home state and revive a great concept and facility,” says Bolder Industries CEO Tony Wibbeler. “The Terre Haute facility is in an excellent location and has great elements that complement our proprietary technology and process. This purchase enables us to expand our capacity to meet current customer demand now and provides for future growth.”

Bolder Industries says it plans to invest approximately $40 million into the first phase of the project. In the recovery process to be put in place in Terre Haute, 98 percent of the tire’s materials are harvested, with 75 percent of the solids and liquids making their way back into new tires, manufactured rubber goods and plastics, says the company.

Bolder Industries’ raw materials yield an average of 85 percent savings in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, water usage and power usage compared to traditional raw materials production, says the firm.

A recently announced partnership with Pittsburgh-based Liberty Tire Recycling “will play an integral role in supplying end-of-life tires as feedstock to this facility” and the company’s increased capacity, according to Bolder.

Paper and board producers in China have adopted several techniques to overcome the ban on scrap paper imports.

In the previous decade, paper and board mills in the People’s Republic of China brought in as much as 30 million tons of recovered fiber annually to that nation, as its export-based economy produced containerboard and corrugated boxes at world-leading levels.

China remains a world leader in producing board and making boxes, but for inexplicable reasons, it now engages in that production without the benefit of importing old corrugated containers (OCC) and other scrap paper grades used to produce cost-effective paperboard. (The reason seems to pertain to the questionable label of “foreign garbage” being applied to OCC.)

Presentations and a panel discussion at the 10th Asian Recycled Fiber and Containerboard Conference in early December helped shed some light on how China’s board producers have adjusted to the disappearance of this once favored feedstock.

Tang Yanju, a secretary general with the China Resources Recycling Association (CRRA), said her association is involved in efforts to bolster recovered fiber collection in China. Tang said this is taking the form of a “market-based” system for industrial and commercial collection and a “public environmental service” format for residential material.

Paper and board producers and recycling firms have been signing contracts with local and provincial governments to open collection and sorting facilities throughout China, says Tang. The national government envisions a “more centralized and efficient” paper recycling system, changing from a formerly “decentralized” model, she added.

Among the companies operating such sorting centers is Shanghai-based Shanying International Holdings, according to Yan Dalin, a vice president and board member of that firm. Yan said Shanying has expanded its domestic sourcing radius for recovered paper beyond a former 300-kilometer (185-mile) limit “to make sure we have enough supply.”

Yan said Shanying also has made investments in recycled-content pulp production overseas. Shanying now has the capacity to convert more than 1.4 million tons per year of recovered paper into pulp. Most of that production is in Thailand, although the company also produces a recycled-content dry pulp product at smaller plants in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

In a panel discussion at the conference, Lucy Yao of Shandong Sun Paper said that firm is operating a pulp facility in Laos to help supply furnish. She said Sun also uses more domestic OCC generated within China, although the quality or yield of that material does not match imported OCC.

Fellow panelist Jennifer Li of Dongguan Jianhui Paper said that firm has chosen Thailand as the location of a pulp mill that converts overseas recovered fiber into a recycled-content product that can be shipped to its mill in South China.

RISI Fastmarkets economist Echo Xu said India-based producers of rolled sheets of recycled-content pulp have had success exporting to China in 2021. This is perhaps in part because the product looks like finished paper and does not incur the scrutiny of customs inspectors.

The early December RISI Fastmarkets event was held in Wuhan, China, and online for those unable to attend in person.

The investment will go toward expanding partnerships and increasing packaging opportunities in the region.

Dispatch Goods, a reusable packaging logistics startup in San Francisco, has announced a $3.7 million seed raise. The company will use the new funding to expand geographically, grow its overall number of restaurant partnerships and explore additional packaging opportunities.

According to a news release from Dispatch, the funding comes after the company replaced 250,000 single-use plastics from the waste stream in 2021.

"Achieving this milestone and closing our investment round truly validates our core strategy of taking a systems approach to reuse, instead of a product approach,” says CEO Lindsey Hoell. “Dispatch Goods has built a unique system that is similar to recycling, which enables businesses to recapture the value of packaging and customers to very easily participate in reuse." 

The round was led by Congruent Ventures along with Bread and Butter Ventures, Precursor Ventures, Incite Ventures, MCJ and Berkeley SkyDeck.

Since 2019, Dispatch Goods says it has provided its restaurant partners the opportunity to leverage completely reusable packaging without ever having to worry about the logistics of cleaning or return. Through this partnership, customers can order food off of DoorDash or through restaurants directly. Then, the food is prepared and delivered in reusable bags and containers. Once they've finished their meals, customers can scan the QR code on the containers to schedule at-home collection or they can deposit the packaging at one a return bin.

"The zero-waste movement is rapidly growing, and we see circular packaging as an inevitable part of a sustainable future," says Christina O'Conor, vice president at Congruent Ventures. "[Dispatch Goods] have demonstrated that they have the hustle, strategic insights and passion to create new systems to support an infrastructure designed for reuse."

Dispatch Goods has partnered with DoorDash, Imperfect Foods and 50 restaurants in the Bay Area, including Bombera, Zuni Café and Mixt Salads. The company says Bombera alone has replaced 4,000 items from the waste stream since its launch with Dispatch Goods this past summer.

The association says the report is a powerful tool for governments assessing how to improve their recycling programs.

The Solid Waste National Association (SWANA), Silver Spring, Maryland, has released a report analyzing “recycle right” programs, their financial impacts on local governments and their effectiveness. The report, “Encouraging Better Curbside Recycling Behaviors,” follows the Applied Research Foundation’s (ARF) report released in March, “Reducing Contamination in Curbside Recycling Programs,” which addressed curbside recycling contamination.

“The new SWANA ARF report is a powerful tool for local governments assessing how to improve their recycling programs and reduce contamination,” says David Biderman, SWANA executive director and CEO. “With the recent issuance of EPA’s (Environmental Protection Agency’s) National Recycling Strategy and its identification of reducing contamination as a key objective, the report is particularly timely. SWANA will be working closely with EPA and other recycling stakeholders to implement the strategy, using some of the lessons learned from this report.”

The report highlights findings from other studies regarding the cost-effectiveness of curbside recycling programs and how to improve them. For example, The Recycling Partnership recommends that communities implement five strategies to reduce curbside recycling contamination. This includes cart inspection and tagging, contaminated cart rejection, direct mailing and general advertising.

SWANA’s report also includes case studies of communities such as Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, and Snohomish County, Washington, and how they improved recycling through outreach programs. 

“SWANA would like to recognize and thank the organizations that comprise the ARF’s Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) research group that identified and voted on this topic as well as supported and assisted in the research,” says Jeremy O’Brien, SWANA director of applied research.

The full report is currently only available to SWANA ARF subscribers. SWANA members receive free access to the report one year after publication. To learn more about the report and to download the executive summary, click here.

Chip Gingles has helped to expand the company’s operational presence in the state since 2018.

Waste Pro USA Inc., Longwood, Florida, has promoted Chip Gingles to serve as its regional vice president of North Carolina.

Gingles has more than 20 years of management experience. According to Waste Pro, he began his career with Waste Pro in 2015 as division manager of the company’s Asheville, North Carolina, division.

In 2017, he became solid waste director for Buncombe County, North Carolina. Waste Pro says this position gave him experience in the public sector and expanded his understanding of municipal waste and recycling processes.

Gingles returned to Waste Pro in 2018 as divisional vice president of North Carolina. The company says he has helped to exponentially grow Waste Pro’s operations across the state.

“Chip is a natural leader and has been key to our growth in the Asheville and Charlotte metro areas,” says Waste Pro President and CEO Sean Jennings.

In his new position, Waste Pro says Gingles will lead more than 250 employees and 160 trucks in the state, servicing more than 160,000 residential customers and more than 7,500 commercial customers.